James Turk: Erosion of Trust Will Drive Gold Higher

James Turk, founder of precious metals accumulation pioneer GoldMoney, has over 40 years' experience in international banking, finance, and investments. He began his career at the Chase Manhattan Bank and in 1983 was appointed manager of the commodity department of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority.

In his new book The Money Bubble: What to Do Before It Pops, James and coauthor John Rubino warn that history is about to repeat.Instead of addressing the causes of the 2008 financial crisis, the world's governments have continued along the same path. Another—even bigger—crisis is coming, and this one, say the authors, will change everything.

One central tenet of your book is that the dollar's international importance has peaked and is now declining. What will the implications be if the dollar loses its reserve status?

In a word, momentous. Although the dollar's role in world trade has been declining in recent years while the euro and more recently the Chinese yuan have been gaining share, the dollar remains the world's dominant currency. So crude oil and many other goods and services are priced in dollars. If goods and services begin being priced in other currencies, the demand for the dollar falls.

Supply and demand determine the value of everything, including money. So a declining demand for the dollar means its purchasing power will fall, assuming its supply remains unchanged. But a constant supply of dollars is an implausible assumption given that the Federal Reserve is constantly expanding the quantity of dollars through various forms of "money printing." So as the dollar's reserve status erodes, its purchasing power will decline too, adding to the inflationary pressures already building up within the system from the Federal Reserve's quantitative easing program that began after the 2008 financial collapse.

Most governments of the world are fighting a currency war, trying to devalue their currencies to gain a competitive advantage over one another. You predict that China will "win" this currency war (to the extent there is a winner). What is China doing right that other countries aren't? How would the investment world change if China did "win"?

As you say, nobody really wins a currency war. All currencies are debased when the war ends. What's important is what happens then. Countries reestablish their currency in a sound way, and that means rebuilding on a base of gold. So the winner of a currency war is the country that ends up with the most gold.

For the past decade, gold has been flowing to China—both newly mined gold as well as from existing stocks. But that flow from West to East has accelerated over the past year, and there are unofficial estimates that China now has the world's third-largest gold reserve.

The implications for the investment world as well as the global monetary system are profound. Why should China use dollars to pay for its imports of crude oil from the Middle East? What if Saudi Arabia and other exporters are willing to price their product and get paid in Chinese yuan? Venezuela is already doing that, so it is not a far-fetched notion that other oil exporters will too. China is a huge importer of crude oil, and its energy needs are likely to grow. So it is becoming a dominant player in global oil trading as the US imports less oil because of the surge in its own domestic fossil fuel production.

Changes in the way oil is traded represent only one potential impact on the investment world, but it indicates what may lie ahead as the value of the dollar continues to erode and gold flows from West to East. So if China ends up with the most gold, it could emerge as the dominant player in global investments and markets. It already has become the dominant player in the market for physical gold.

You draw a distinction between "financial" and "tangible" assets, noting that we go through a recurring cycle where each falls in and out of favor. Where are we in that cycle? With US stocks at all-time highs and gold down over 30% since the summer of 2011, is it possible that the cycle is rolling over?

Our monetary system suffers recurring booms and busts because of the fractional reserve practice of banks, which allows them to create money "out of thin air," as the saying goes. During booms—all of which are caused by too much money that banks have created by expanding credit—financial assets outperform, but they eventually become overvalued relative to tangible assets. The cycle then reverses. The fractional reserve system goes into reverse and credit contracts, causing a lot of promises made during the good times to be broken. Loans don't get repaid, unnerving bankers and investors alike. So money flees out of financial assets and the counterparty risk these assets entail, and into the safety of tangible assets, until eventually tangible assets become overvalued, and the cycle reverses again.

So for example, the boom in financial assets that ended in 1967 led to a reversal in the cycle until tangible assets became overvalued in 1981. The cycle reversed again, and financial assets boomed until the popping of the dot-com bubble in 2000. We are still in the cycle favoring tangible assets, but there is no way to predict when it will end. We know it will end when tangible assets become overvalued, but as John and I explain in The Money Bubble, we are not even close to that moment yet.

You cite the "shrinking trust horizon" as one of the long-term factors that will drive gold higher. Can you explain?

Yes, this is an important point that we make. Our economy, and indeed, our society, is based on trust. We expect the bread we buy from a baker or the gasoline we buy for our car to be reliable. We expect our money on deposit in a bank to be safe. But if we find the baker is putting sawdust in our bread and governments are using depositor money to bail out banks, as happened in Cyprus last year, trust begins to erode.

An erosion of trust means that people are less willing to accept the counterparty risk that comes with financial assets, so the erosion of trust occurs during financial busts. People as a consequence move their wealth into tangible assets, be it investments in tangible things like farmland, oil wells, or mines, or in tangible forms of money, which of course means gold.

Obviously, gold has been in a painful slump since the summer of 2011. What near-term catalysts—let's say in 2014—could wake it from its slumber?

We have to put 2013 into perspective, because portfolio management is a marathon, not a 100-meter sprint. Gold had risen 12 years in a row prior to last year's price decline. And even after last year, gold has appreciated 13% per annum on average, making it one of the world's best-performing asset classes since the current financial bust began with the popping of the dot-com bubble.

Looking to the year ahead, there are many potential catalysts, but it is impossible to predict which event will be the trigger. The derivatives time bomb? Failure of a big bank? The sovereign debt crisis returns to the boil? The Japanese yen collapses? It could be any of these or something we can't even imagine. But one thing is certain: as long as central banks continue their present money-printing ways, the price of gold will rise over time to reflect the debasement of national currencies. The gold price might not jump to its fair value immediately because of government intervention, but it will rise eventually and inevitably.

So the most important thing to keep in mind is the money printing that pretty much every central bank around the world is doing. The central bankers have given it a fancy name—"quantitative easing." But regardless of what it is called, it is still creating money out of thin air, which debases the currency that central bankers are supposed to be prudently managing to preserve the currency's purchasing power.

Money printing does the exact opposite; it destroys purchasing power, and the gold price in terms of that currency rises as a consequence. The gold price is a barometer of how well—or perhaps more to the point, how poorly—central bankers are doing their job.

Governments have been debasing currencies since the Roman denarius. Why do you expect the consequences of this particular era of debasement to be so severe?

Yes, they have, and to use Rome as the example, its empire collapsed when the currency was debased. Worryingly, after the collapse of the Roman Empire, the world went into the so-called Dark Ages. Countries grow and prosper on sound money. They dissipate and eventually collapse when money becomes unsound. This pattern recurs throughout history.

Rome of course did not collapse overnight. The debasement of their currency cannot be precisely measured, but it lasted over 100 years. The important point we need to recognize is that the debasement of the dollar that began with the formation of the Federal Reserve in 1913 has now lasted over 100 years too. A penny in 1913 had the same purchasing power as a dollar has today, which, interestingly, is not too different from the rate at which Rome's denarius was debased.

After discussing how the government of Cyprus raided its citizens' bank accounts in 2013, you suggest that it's a near certainty that more countries will introduce capital controls and asset confiscations in the next few years. What form might those seizures take, and how can people protect their assets?

It is impossible to predict, of course, because central planners can be very creative in coming up with different forms of financial repression that prevent you from doing what you want with your money. In fact, look at the creativity they have already used.

For example, not only did bank depositors in Cyprus lose much of their money, much of what was left was given to them in the forms of shares of the banks they bailed out, forcing them to become shareholders. And the US has imposed a creative type of capital control that makes it nearly impossible for its citizens to open a bank account outside the US. Pension plans are the most vulnerable because they are easy to get at. Keep in mind that Argentina, Ireland, Spain, and Poland raided private pensions when those countries ran into financial trouble.

Protecting one's assets in today's environment is difficult. John and I have some suggestions in the book, such as global diversification and internationalizing oneself to become as flexible as possible.

You dedicated an entire chapter of your book to silver. Which do you think will appreciate more in the next year, gold or silver? How about in the next 10 years?

I think silver will do better for the foreseeable future. It is still very cheap compared to gold. As but one example to illustrate this point, even though gold underwent a big price correction last year, it is still trading above the record high it made in January 1980, which was the top of the bull run that began in the 1960s.

In contrast, not only has silver not yet broken above its January 1980 peak of $50 per ounce, it is still far from that price. So silver has a lot of catching up to do.

Silver is a good substitute for gold in that silver, too, can be viewed as money outside the banking system, which is an important objective to keep wealth liquid and safe today. But silver may not be for everyone, because it is volatile. This volatility can be measured with the gold/silver ratio, which is the number of ounces of silver needed to equal one ounce of gold. The ratio was 30 to 1 in 2011, and several months later jumped to 60 to 1.

So you can see how volatile silver is. But because I expect silver to do better than gold, I believe that the ratio will fall to 16 to 1 eventually, which is the same level it reached in January 1980. It is also the ratio that generally applied when national currencies used to be backed by precious metals.

Besides gold, what one secular trend would you be most comfortable betting a large portion of your nest egg on?

Own things, rather than promises. Avoid financial assets. Own tangible assets of all sorts, like farmland, timberland, oil wells, etc. Near-tangibles like the equities of companies that own tangible assets are okay too, but avoid the equities of banks, credit card companies, mortgage companies, and any other equities tied to financial assets.

What asset class are you most bearish on?

Without any doubt, it is government debt in particular and more generally, government promises. They have promised more than they can possibly deliver, so a lot of their promises are going to be broken before we see the end of this current bust that began in 2000. And that outcome of broken promises describes the huge task that we all face. There will be a day of reckoning. There always is when an economy and governments take on more debt than is prudent, and the world is far beyond that point.

So everyone needs to plan and prepare for that day of reckoning. We can't predict when it is coming, but we know from monetary history that busts follow booms, and more to the point, that currencies collapse when governments make promises that they cannot possibly fulfill. Their central banks print the currency the government wants to spend until the currency eventually collapses, which is a key point of The Money Bubble. The world has lost sight of what money is.

What today is considered to be money is only a money substitute circulating in place of money. J.P. Morgan had it right when in testimony before the US Congress in 1912 he said: "Money is gold, nothing else." Because we have lost sight of this wisdom, a "money bubble" has been created. And it will pop. Bubbles always do.

What puts in a bottom in gold & silver is that they move together & have real physical energy costs to extract & refine and those costs set the real limit on acquisition cost elsewhere. What sets a bottom in trading is no one else willing to go leveraged long & people who went leveraged short get hurt bad enough not to try it again. Then come the bonds. Bonds collapsing & stocks being rife with fraud leaves people with gold, oil & land as choices.

It has less to do with math and more to do with "generational forgetfulness". It takes 3 generations to forget a monetary collapse and what caused it. Along with a healthy dose "revisionist history" perhaps.

Bankers are well aware of this phenomenon.

In 80 years we've gone from gold/silver redeemable currency to currency that has no redeemability and no backing, and nobody fusses about it.

But after the US dollar collapse the cycle starts over. Next currency will be gold/silver redeemable again, or it won't be taken seriously.

exactly. in the global negotiations to come, the parties will twist and squirm all different ways to try and exclude gold backing from the equation, but in the end it will be the only viable source for the restoration of trust

Then perhaps you can explain how all the same families avoided the collapse of 1929, 1931 and 1938? Think Keynes and Austrians as the opposite sides in the dialectic. Austrians filled with economic validity, but no influence. Keynes filled with little validity and all the influence. It gives a lot to argue about, but the system remains the same.

You have to ignore the noise and get to the heart of the matter. Produce more than you consume. Save more than you spend. Invest, live, love and tell the slavemasters to fuck off. All the rest takes care of itself.

two possibilities, one is coincidence, which i presume from your line of reasoning must be reluctant to admit, and second and more importantly it is the gens; smart people tend to pass their gens to other smart paople and so on, hence the reason for kingdom (you must not believe that right?)...

well out of amunition, almost, but here is a question back to you ... how do you explain that Kennedy the father (followed the advice of the guy who tied his shoes, bet all his fortune on his clever advice, won, and what happened to his sons if we are to believe the conspirators??? just sayin'

i love a good question from someone who has done his homework ... that way we can develop the thought and learn in the process from each-other ... that is the reason of my attempt to address your question on big famillia

Unfortunately, there are lots of intelligent people whom never wield influence. There are plenty of average mentalities whom do wield influence- think John Kennedy- IQ of about 105. Still, he was but a puppet and when he stopped dancing? You notice GW has come out just fine and he is a VERY average intelligence.

Kennedy was well connected through Illuminati ties. The shoe shine boy? You really believe that? All stock market action is front run by the holders of seats on the exchange and even more by a powerful circle within that group. The crash was he result of capital withdrawn by central bankers in the US and Europe- think Rothschild.

His sons misbehaved. That is what happens when you challenge the Illuminati/zionist nexus. They have no problem killing family members. Or saving them: Ted Kennedy- Chappaquidick?

"family members" ... Sean do not take this personally, but that is a bit too high, more like a short term contractor, i wondered where the old man got the job from, when he was in London or his father in law ... not important though, they were really short term contractors, just one job it seems to me

for someone that is curious enough to ask the questions I must ask why you have not researched these issues more......most of these issues are covered in detail by books and publication that are well researched and Sean does not need to be a "conspiracist" when indeed the facts portray this as exactly that...a global conspiracy.....but of course if "random" events make you feel more comfortable by all means have a nice lazy internet debate

i apologize.......the evidence to support Sean is out there in overwhelming amounts and millions know this and have researched it.....the problem is the masses (billions) for a variety of complex reasons do not care or care to research this and rely upon the MSM and football for their education......just use your search engine and you will be amazed.......

And the locus of power shifted away from Europe to the US - which held, controlled gold, gold based reserve currency and oil transaction settlements. And in the next reset, that power may slip through TPTB fingers again into a new set of hands - with many being in the East/Russia. This isn't to say the well heeled manipulators of the banksta mafia, won't persist in some form, of course.

I agree that human society at large haven't learned our lessons, or been able to establish more just systems, unless perhaps incrementally, or symbolically - "democracy" and the supposed "rule of law". We can prepare for the reset, but unless many more are awakened (Ron Paul, et al), we will not see any advancements in just society and economics...

Why would I listen to any one with half a brain, regardless of how well informed? If there is a "collapse" it will be engineered to create a society with greater control and tyranny, yet the same people will stay on top. Further, unless you are one of those families, your position will be jeopardized.

You want to have control and think you can create it, an island away from totalitarianism. Sorry, it doesn.t work that way. The only way this changes is if we all refuse to accept the system. You have to eliminate the system of law, because that is the machinery of slavery.

Those so called "expert" (people like Turk) can call whatever they want, they think they know what they are doing, if you pull those articles from 2011, they had been saying "back your truck up" how many f*&king times?

You keep saying "buy , buy, buy" long enough, you will get one or twice right. Go back to King's world news, when did they say "gold has a major top, time to run"? never.

This has nothing to do with gold fundmental.

You have limited capital, you follow those guys, in no time you lose all your money.

They say buy buy buy because they forecast a collapse and PM are the only insurance one can get. It has all to do with the fundamentals ! It's the same than Faber repeating all the time : "I buy gold every month, whatever the price". When did you read on KWN "now sell your gold and take profits". Never as well.

They did both go much higher in 2011. However, the bottom dropped out afterwards as well - to a degree that is close to statistically impossible without illicit intervention/manipulation. Was Tuirk supposed to foresee that also? Maybe - Moriarty called the silver top about right, so I guess he had his 20-20 glasses on at the time.

Nice article, it came as if it's ordered just in time. I am betting on a drop in paper-gold value this week, albeit not that much (about 30$ btw low/high of the week). We all saw lately that gold and stocks (and bonds partially) went up more or less in line, so a drop in stocks will lead to a drop in paper-value price, too.

I agree. Although if gold hangs in there and goes higher, watch the fuck out. Even this week, when the markets were pulling back on "bad" news (usually during the pre-market hours), gold held in there, along with the mining stocks, and even pushed higher. So--if we do get some kind of stock market correction, I wouldn't be surprised to see Gold still chug upwards.

I believe in the fundamental function of Gold in finances. I believe Gold in the financial realm is analagous to God in the spiritual realm - it is the basis for everything. And just like the way America has abandoned God, it has also abandoned Gold. Neither decision will bring about any good and things will get worse from here.

With that said, let's be clear. James Turk and Jim Sinclair have been dead wrong in everything they have said since August of 2011. They may have alot of knowledge about precious metals, but their forecasts have lacked anything that can been defined as "precision", although everything they say can be termed as "accurate".

So have they just been "talking their books"? I don't think so. I think 80% of their errors can be attirbuted to the fact that very few (and I mean FEW) people saw how controlled the markets could be and the length of time they could be controlled by the squids and cartels.

But even if you can take that into account, men like Sincalir and Turk are in great need of a "mea culpa" moment. I need to hear "I was wrong for two years and this is why..." from several pundits. It's been a tough 30 months and it's time for a good soul cleansing for many out there. Until I get some of that, I ignore them and just keep stacking.

Predicting major trends is not too difficult and even within the grap of anyone with basic common sense. However, timing these same trends i.e. determining a precise timetable of when it will all play out, is virtually impossible. Too many variables and possible black swans along the road. Even knowledgeable guys like Jim Sinclair often pull the trigger much too early.

Me, I'm just glad I have some general idea of where all of this is heading. Knowing when seems less important.

Turk's knowledge of the current state of finances is analagous to a geologist being knowlegeable about earthquakes. Its easy to see what causes them and what the do when the happen but event the smartest geologists cant predict when they are going to occur. But they at least tell people where they shouldn't live and how to prepare for an earthquake when and where they will likely come.

Presure builds up then a bird shits on the ground and the whole thing starts shaking.

I agree and that's why I tried to make the point between being "accurate" versus being "precise". I also hope I have made the point that they still need to discuss their lack of "precision" in an honest forum instead of pretending like their bad calls never happened. This goes double for James Turk who I have lost all respect for along with Jim Willie.

Although I must admit that I did receive an email from Santa where he didn't run from it. Now, he has to go public with the admission and some critical analysis of his own views.

Nice post, but the only reason why they should apologize is for underestimating the extent to which the markets are manipulated (ask Germany). Give me "the mechanism to manipulate" and I will convince 99% ("sheep") that the one who told the truth, was wrong. It's just a splendid piece of "mindfuck"

“In the beginning of a change the patriot is a scarce man, and brave, and hated and scorned. When his cause succeeds, the timid join him, for then it costs nothing to be a patriot.” - Mark Twain

look you pompous internet douche.......just WHAT should he specifically go public on that he has NOT already covered for two years now on this takedown.......THAT HE WARNED YOU to get into bullion AND THAT ALL PAPER was going to get crushed........are you pissed because you didn't get rich last year .........taking "precise" advice on timing will get you destroyed in this game........OBVIOUSLY you do NOT learn

Good to see that you still have a fine sense of posting etiquette that got you booted from TFM.

I'm not pissed that I didn't get rich, I'm angry that I took these people at their word and got set back a year. If they want to be known as "experts", they need to know what that entails. I know that Sinclair takes it to heart most of the time. I don't think Turk understands that at all.

Turk advises to buy precious metals with the same dollar amount the same time each month. This way you are averaging in. Many people put the majority of their life savings into silver in the $30's and $40's because all the pumpers on Turd Ferguson's and other pumper sites convinced them that silver was going to the moon and if you don't get some now you will be left out forever.

James Turk NEVER advised people to go all in on gold or silver, always advised averaging in. His price forecasts were horrible, but if you took his buying advise you would not be underwater today!

cpnscarlet must have gone all in on silver alot higher than today's price because most of his posts on TFM are whining about James Turk's bad calls!

I never saw a person on Earth do what I did, plot gold prices nearly daily in the future for outcome, months in advance.My charts failed only when I sent one on twitter TO the Federal Reserve.The math was my own, http://www.youtube.com/ytgv3fc7 for the videos on how they were made, and I came to the same prices as Sinclair.I'll cut him some slack. No one else was more accurate.

agree .....especially with Jim Sinclair. He freely admits the cartel has broken every law in the books to keep their control and without the move outside the law this could never have been maintained this long... It DOES NOT make the COMPLETELY WRONG ABOUT EVERYTHING......just the timing and unless you were shaken out/leveraged then you'll be fine

I myself chose to give Sinclair a pass. Obviously the take down in gold was a planned and coordinated event by the government, or someone who has been deemed above the law by the government. And obviously there were some privy to the planned action. Those folks are now hailed as the great prognosticators of the metals, the slimeball Armstrong comes to mind, because their "calls" were somehow remarkably prescient. Obviously Sinclair is outside the system and works against the PTB, which makes him a target. I don't doubt in the least some of the take downs I've seen in the past were timed to make Sinclair look like a fool. Right or wrong, I'll stand with Sinclair any day. He, IMO, is a man of character and that comes before all else to me.

character matters in my book too, especially these days true man of character are the real 1% of the 1% ... i dont think though the all actions are made so to attack any person ... i still believe in free markets whatever that means

The problem with trying to guess the inflection point, is that the system is 3-dimensional, while we're all busy thinking in 2-dimensional terms.

Like Keynes said, the market can stay irrational, longer than you can stay solvent, and all of these gold-space 'gurus' have been wrong as much as they've been right, which is why I don't even read what they have to say, most of the time. You can pick a JSMineset post from 2011, or a KWN interview from 2011, and chances are, it will sound the same as the current ones do.

"Today, Eric King sat down with this 40+ year market veteran, and here's what he had to say, in this powerful interview:

You will walk along the boardwalk, but I will cripple you of my truck in spite of all the rules. And then, you will be in the hospital and talk about how it were wrong all those who wrote the rules of the road: blah blah blah.

Obviously this is at best satire...if China free floats the yuan (which they will never do because the regime is guaranteed a fixed rate of RETURN under the current system) then they would get their energy wherever they could get it...not "from Saudi Arabia."

They will have to float eventually in order to be taken seriously as well as be part of the SDR. I do admit his thesis about Saudi Arabia and a floating yuan is 30 years away. We have more immediate concerns lol

The first central bank was began in England in the 1700's. It is still there and it still has something to say about currency around the world. Why? Because they have placed central banks in almost every country. They have established legal tender laws and taken choice out of the hands of most people. When currencies have failed, they usually decide to use another, more stable piece of paper.

Turk is either an idiot or talking his book. Oh yeah, Casey does sell gold (and argentinian property- that's a good con).

The manipulation of financial instruments (the more the better) has contined to be the tool of choice for the theft of wealth capital. The abuse of taxation is the tool of choice to discount labor. Medicine appears to be the tool of choice to steal every last dollar before you die.

The only way to free yourself from this system of slavery is to refuse to participate and create new social organizations which refuse to allow law. Money will take care of itself.

The more we fight over imaginary and engineered crisises or dialectics, the more we lose sight of the holy grail of liberty. If you think the status quo are giving up the slavery system, then you aren't paying attention to history.

correct me if i am wrong, but my understanding is that the first Central Bank was created in Sweeden or Amsterdam, hence the reason for their prosperity as peace loving people as compare to savages who like wars ...

the US seems to have gotten late in the game for the wrong reasons, but it is a new country cant really pretend to rule the world now can it?

In 1814 King William I of the Netherlands founded De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB). In time DNB developed from a private lender into, ultimately, a part of the European System of Central Banks and the Dutch prudential supervisor of the entire financial sector. The monetary centre of gravity shifted from DNB to the ECB in Frankfurt, the guilder went out and the euro came in. What remained unchanged through all those years was the role of DNB as guardian of financial stability.

Sveriges Riksbank, or simply Riksbanken, is the central bank of Sweden. It is the world's oldest central bank. The Riksbank began its operations in 1668, its antecedent being Stockholms Banco (also known as the Bank of Palmstruch), which was founded by Johan Palmstruch in 1656. Although the bank was private, it was the king who chose its management: in a letter to Palmstruch, he gave permission to its operations according to stated regulations.

Sveriges Riksbank became a central bank in the modern sense when it was granted a monopoly on issuing banknotes in the 1897 Riksbank Act. His Majesty the King had the right to appoint the Chairman of the board of directors, but Sveriges Riksbank was still an agency of the Riksdag.

"reluctant" it is a nice way to put it ... more a real battle for the control of the country i would say, where the country lost, but there was no a real chance of winning there was it ? just a matter of time, until the old holdouts die. Same in Russia, it took time but in the end we all know the result with the revolution...

Brilliant commentary Sean. The line 'you're still fucking peasants as far as I can see' springs to mind (although whether John actually observed someone fucking peasants into the distance has yet to be confirmed).

Normally I'd say gold would get hit because Turk is correct and has been correct for a long time. That pisses off CB paper traders. They trade emotionally and to lose. A turk interview is usually a bad thing for paper gold prices. But seeing all these nonsense attacks on Turk, I am not so sure now. Like Turk, there is zero doubt in my mind where gold is going. It may annoy people that Turk won't give up. But he is right. There is no reason for him to do anything but out-chess the paper gold market by taking more physical gold as long as it is mispriced.

I still have some problems with gold as a place to store value. Call me a skeptic but I contend that the illusion of value should not be held to close. The value of a building can be altered when a tenant goes bankrupt. The value of a currency drops when everyone starts to sell it and even the value of gold can drastically change if a government confiscates it and makes it illegal to buy, sell or even own can.

What something is worth can be difficult to determine. And most of all tell me the value of a promise on paper or implied, remember if you own gold that is represented by a certificate, you own a piece of paper. More on the subject of how value shifts and what something is worth can be found in the post below,

I presume everyone is talking their book. If it makes sense and is logically sound I may take action. The problem is always going to be the timing of it and that is why I dollar cost average ( something I learned on CNBC) my PM purchases (Not learned on CNBC). There is too much at stake for the collapse to be quick and painful, too many distractions for the sheeple, too many financially illterates to obtain the critical mass of the population needed for action, and too much credit available still. Consumer credit is still too plentiful, and if the RE credit market collapse taught us anything is that TPTB can prop that system up for a long time.

We are following Toby Connor with his very interesting concept of The Great Inflation in 2014. Gold was in a breakout mood this week and finally has broken to the upside from $1270 level with intraday high on Friday at $1,322 and close at $1,319. We have now the massive short squeeze in action in Gold and Silver. Silver has broken to the upside as well on Friday closing at $21.51. Gold mining shares are making the very good progress as well.
On the chart above you can see that Gold has crossed the very important level on daily chart and moved above its 200MA at $1,309. It will bring a lot of attention of traders and shorts will be running to the exit now. Mass media will be picking up the Gold story as well now. CNBC is talking about Gold and Miners already and Jim Cramer advises to watch GDX - Gold miners ETF. Next levels in Gold to watch is $1,360 and $1,420 to complete Double Bottom Reversal pattern on weekly chart.
Silver had its massive breakout as well following the Gold footsteps this week. Next levels to watch here are $22.75 and $25 to confirm its Double Bottom Reversal pattern on weekly chart. The most important here that Silver has broken to the upside above its 200MA at $21.13 and closed above it at $21.49.
http://sufiy.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/toby-connor-dollar-breaks-down-great...

I too found Toby Connor's recent articles interesting, until I read in the latest one that he is predicting the stock market to peak and then crash in the middle of this year, followed by a shot in the gold price toward $2000 --- to be followed by a crash in gold and silver and an eight-year bear market in the PMs and commodities in general.

Given the trajectory of governmental deficits, government debt, monetization of government debt, and exponentially growing, and unbacked, government 'entitlements' --- and the obvious and subsequent currency debasement necessitated by all these trends --- just how likely is an eight year bear market in the PMs, and generally falling commodity prices, between 2014 and 2022? My gut tells me highly unlikely to outright impossible.

I think you need to look a lot closer to home
for a bank failure.Something bad is brewing in the
US system.We can only see symptoms,like the massive
reverse repos, not the problem directly.$800bn in r/r's
yet bank reserves are increasing, it does not compute ?

with inflation or hyper inflation, the stock market assets will also significantly appreciate. the point is, just don't be cash. own something, a company, real estate, or metal. Personally, i think this is really what is driving the stock market, sure some believe things are actually better but im sure a lot of people are looking for inlfation protection. in a perfect world, i'd like to be 50% stocks and 50% physical gold. that's being said, i'm mostly cash as i really do belive this will flollow 1920s germany, as has been pointed out on this site many times. So, we'll get the market crash >50%, which will only lead to hyper inflation. so buy stocks on the dip, before S&P rockets to 30k. I'm suspecting metals perfrom similarly, although this time is different as cancer today is global. instead of one country rushing to commodities, many countries might do the same.

I agreed Sinclair underestimated how hard they could bring the price down. I too believe he is a man of sound character. I have been reading his stuff since 2001. He is getting older and scaled way way back on his market commentaries - he used to hand-draw charts, et cetera. He always said don't get caught on margin and don't get emotional. On this last downdraft he simply said do nothing. You can't do nothing if you are margined but if you hold a non-life changing quantity and thus are in no hurry you can ride it out. Nothing short of anarchy and economic Martial Law can keep gold down while they print the obscene amounts they are doing. They are gold-plated thieves and scumbags.

As we have mentioned before, Gold and Silver has broken to the upside causingmassive short squeeze. The big boyz are loaded on Gold now and we will monitor today how the mass media will be picking up the Gold story again. It will be nothing more than the info fed for crowd indicator, but it is important to watch the change in the investing public outlook. We will provide the digest of the most interesting articles from industry insiders as well this weekend updating this entry, stay tuned.
The most important news for us:

The Fed can keep the US debt from defaulting for forever. If the Fed holds all the debt then all interest paid gets paid right back to the government, less the Fed's operating expenses. The FEd will simply become a counting machine and the dollar will lose much of it's value.